Sidmouth wages war on scavenger seagulls with £80 feeding fines

Feeding the gulls in this part of East Devon can now bring a hefty financial penalty. Will it stop the problem?

Perry King takes a break from cleaning windows in the seaside resort of Sidmouth. "Some of the seagulls do look fat," he muses. "You look at them and think, that's a chip bird."

In this part of East Devon, however, the days of seagulls surviving on a diet of chips, doughnuts, ice-cream and pasties may be coming to an end. Last week the district council became the first in the country to attempt to control the birds' fondness for junk food through financial sanction. Anyone found deliberately feeding the seagulls in five Devon seaside towns can now be fined 80 under a public spaces protection order.